TREBELL. It's a pity the truth isn't to be told, I think. I suppose the
verdict will be murder.
WEDGECROFT. They won't catch the man.
TREBELL. You don't mean ... me.
WEDGECROFT. No, no ... my dear fellow.
TREBELL. You might, you know. But nobody seems to see this thing as I see
it. If I were on that jury I'd say murder too and accuse ... so many
circumstances, Gilbert, that we should go home ... and look in the
cupboards. What a lumber of opinions we inherit and keep!
WEDGECROFT. [_Humouring him._] Ought we to burn the house down?
TREBELL. Rules and regulations for the preservation of rubbish are the laws
of England ... and I was adding to their number.
WEDGECROFT. And so you shall ... to the applause of a grateful country.
TREBELL. [_Studying his friend's kindly encouraging face._] Gilbert, it is
not so much that you're an incorrigible optimist ... but why do you subdue
your mind to flatter people into cheerfulness?
WEDGECROFT. I'm a doctor, my friend.
TREBELL. You're a part of our tendency to keep things alive by hook or by
crook ... not a spark but must be carefully blown upon. The world's old and
tired; it dreads extinction. I think I disapprove ... I think I've more
faith.
WEDGECROFT. [_Scolding him._] Nonsense ... you've the instinct to preserve
your life as everyone else has ... and I'm here to show you how.
TREBELL. [_Beyond the reach of his kindness._] I assure you that these two
days while you've been fussing around O'Connell--bless your kind heart--I've
been waiting events, indifferent enough to understand his indifference.
WEDGECROFT. Not indifferent.
TREBELL. Lifeless enough already, then. [_Suddenly a thought strikes him._]
D'you think it was Horsham and his little committee persuaded O'Connell?
WEDGECROFT. On the contrary.
TREBELL. So you need not have let them into the secret?
WEDGECROFT. No.
TREBELL. Think of that.
_He almost laughs; but_ WEDGECROFT _goes on quite innocently._
WEDGECROFT. Yes ... I'm sorry.
TREBELL. Upsetting their moral digestion for nothing.
WEDGECROFT. But when O'Connell wouldn't listen to us we had to rope in the
important people.
TREBELL. With their united wisdom. [_Then he breaks away again into great
bitterness._] No ... what do they make of this woman's death? I saw them in
that room, Gilbert, like men seen through the wrong end of a telescope.
D'you think if the little affair with Nature ... her offence and mine
against the conveniences of civilization ... had ended in my death too ...
then they'd have stopped to wonder at the misuse and waste of the only force
there is in the world ... come to think of it, there is no other ... than
this desire for expression ... in words ... or through children. Would they
have thought of that and stopped whispering about the scandal?
_Through this_ WEDGECROFT _has watched him very gravely._
WEDGECROFT. Trebell ... if the inquest to-morrow had put you out of action
...
TREBELL. Should I have grown a beard and travelled abroad and after ten
years timidly tried to climb my way back into politics? When public opinion
takes its heel from your face it keeps it for your finger-tips. After twenty
years to be forgiven by your more broad-minded friends and tolerated as a
dotard by a new generation....
WEDGECROFT. Nonsense. What age are you now ... forty-six ... forty-seven?
TREBELL. Well ... let's instance a good man. Gladstone had done his best
work by sixty-five. Then he began to be popular. Think of his last years of
oratory.
_He has gone to his table and now very methodically starts to tidy his
papers,_ WEDGECROFT _still watching him._
WEDGECROFT. You'd have had to thank Heaven for a little that there were more
lives than one to lead.
TREBELL. That's another of your faults, Gilbert ... it's a comfort just now
to enumerate them. You're an anarchist ... a kingdom to yourself. You make
little treaties with Truth and with Beauty, and what can disturb you? I'm a
part of the machine I believe in. If my life as I've made it is to be cut
short ... the rest of me shall walk out of the world and slam the door ...
with the noise of a pistol shot.
WEDGECROFT. [_Concealing some uneasiness._] Then I'm glad it's not to be cut
short. You and your cabinet rank and your disestablishment bill!